By Zephyria 
After checking the resident registration transcript, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“What is this?”
There was no way I had requested a transcript for Joo Min-hyeok. Why was Joo Min-hyeok’s name on my transcript? Even if there were many things I didn’t know, I knew that a divorced ex-spouse wouldn’t remain on one’s resident registration. Where was my address listed? I quickly scanned the page to find my current address.
The address was listed as the palace. For a moment, my mind went blank and everything felt distant; I couldn’t think of anything else. All I could do was stare vacantly at the paper. As my senses returned, a cold sweat began to pour down my skin, and my hands started to tremble violently.
Something was wrong. Ah, was it because I hadn’t filed for a separate household? I was supposed to report my change of address after the divorce, but I think I neglected it because I was too busy running away. I speculated that since we were listed at the same address, Joo Min-hyeok might still be remaining as the head of the household on my transcript.
“Maybe it’s like this because I printed it from home. If I go to the community center tomorrow and check in person, it might come out differently. Right. It’s probably because I applied online.”
If I visited the center and printed a new one, would it be correct? It should be, right? I had no idea what I had done wrong for Joo Min-hyeok to be sitting right there as the head of the household. I struggled to organize the thoughts cluttering my mind with all sorts of guesses, wanting to deny the reality unfolding before my eyes.
Calm down. Be composed. It’s probably nothing. It’s just because this is my first time seeing the transcript. There must be some reason why Joo Min-hyeok’s name is there. Let’s think calmly. Let’s read it again carefully. I squeezed my eyes shut, opened them again, and began to read the transcript meticulously from the top.
[This is to certify that this content is identical to the original content of the resident registration table by household. Applicant: Cha Hae-joo.]
My name was there as the applicant. Right, well, that’s because I applied for it. But nothing else made sense. Head of Household: Joo Min-hyeok. I mean, why was the head of the household Joo Min-hyeok? Why on earth?
“Ah!”
Was it because I was too stressed? Suddenly, I felt a throbbing pain in my heart. My blood pressure must have risen, as my neck began to feel stiff. Cha Hae-joo, calm down. I closed my eyes and tried to soothe my dizzy head. I repeated deep breaths, but it didn’t get much better.
I felt like something terrible would happen if I stayed alone like this, so I forced strength into my shaking legs and went to find Han-bin hyung. It felt shameless to wake him up when he was likely asleep and show him myself in this state, but right now, I desperately needed someone’s help.
“Hy… Hyung.”
Without even thinking to knock, I called out to him in a voice that sounded like I was dying. My hands lacked strength, and as I repeatedly failed to turn the doorknob, the door suddenly swung open from the inside.
“Hae-joo? Hae-joo, what’s wrong!”
Having jumped up in a hurry, hyung—who had let his blanket fall to the floor—spotted me slumped beside the door and raised his voice urgently. Hearing the loud noise in the middle of the night, Dad and Seo-joo, who were resting in their respective rooms, also came outside.
“Hae-joo! What happened? Are you sick?”
Dad, who ran over after turning on the living room lights, examined my face and placed a hand on my forehead. I weakly shook my head, saying I wasn’t sick, but to anyone watching, my condition was far from normal. While Seo-joo went to get some water, Dad lifted me and moved me to the sofa. Because of me, a commotion had broken out in the middle of the night.
“You were fine until dinner. Did you get indigestion? Should we go to the hospital? Your health hasn’t been bad lately, so why all of a sudden…?”
“Hyung, could it be indigestion because I gave him too many wraps earlier? There’s no color in his face or lips!”
Han-bin hyung calmed the two anxious men and continued to watch over me as I leaned back on the sofa. As I drank the water Seo-joo handed me and looked at my family, my fearful heart calmed slightly, and I felt I could breathe again. Once my body felt a bit better, I held out the transcript to hyung.
“…Hyung, Dad. Please look at this.”
“What is this?”
Hyung took the transcript with a puzzled expression, but his face gradually turned pale. After checking the document several times, his pupils shook, and his complexion changed drastically. Noticing the visible change in hyung’s face, Dad looked at him this time.
“What is it that’s making you react like that? A resident registration transcript?”
“…Please check it for yourself.”
Hyung spoke quietly as he handed over the paper. As Dad took the transcript and examined it with a tense expression, a look of utter bewilderment became evident on his face.
“No, what on earth is this…”
Dad, seemingly unable to find other words, kept repeating, “What on earth.” Right. What on earth was happening? Seeing that everyone’s reaction was similar, I knew I hadn’t misread the text. Something was definitely wrong. Seo-joo, who had been wiping the sweat from my face, also looked at the transcript Dad held out, and his face froze instantly.
“This is strange, right? Why am I still Joo Min-hyeok’s spouse? Is it because I didn’t do the change of address report after the divorce? Right now, the house and the cafe are all in Dad’s name. Because I didn’t personally file for a separate household… No, but the lawyers said they would take care of all that.”
“Hyung. Did you deliver the divorce papers to His Majesty personally? Did you confirm it?”
“No. I tried to give them to him but couldn’t, and then that incident happened that night. I was too busy fleeing in a panic, leaving the papers in my Imperial Pavilion.”
I looked back at the situation, recalling the events of that time. Normally, I would have given the papers to Joo Min-hyeok, and things would have proceeded smoothly. If only I hadn’t been ambushed that night.
“Then you didn’t confirm anything? You didn’t even know how far the process had gone or if the divorce was finalized? Setting that aside, you don’t even know if the papers were delivered to the court, or if His Majesty even found the divorce papers? And yet you thought the divorce went through?”
“…Yes.”
Seo-joo wouldn’t be unaware that I hadn’t had the luxury to confirm anything. I had fled for my life in a frenzy.
“Isn’t that natural? You weren’t in a state to confirm anything, and the Imperial Family officially publicized the separation. It would be stranger to think the divorce hadn’t happened. We all believed it to be so…”
As Dad said, since there had been an official announcement, I naturally assumed the divorce was finalized. Our ending had been on such bad terms, and since the divorce was something Joo Min-hyeok had promised, I didn’t even doubt it. There was absolutely no reason for our relationship to be maintained.
If the divorce hadn’t happened, then how on earth did Joo Min-hyeok intend to welcome an Empress? Since he had abolished the concubine system with his own hands, if we were still legally married, Joo Min-hyeok could not bring in an Empress. I still couldn’t fathom what was in his head or what he was thinking.
“…I think you aren’t divorced, Hae-joo.”
While we were rambling, hyung, who had been sitting quietly in thought, spoke up. With those few words, the already heavy atmosphere became even quieter, as if cold water had been poured over us. Dad let out a long sigh at hyung’s words.
“Hyung! But you know too. I definitely prepared and filled out all the divorce papers back then. Or maybe the Imperial Pavilion was a mess the day we fled, so he couldn’t find the papers? Is that why the divorce wasn’t reported? They said the lawyers would handle it as long as the seal was stamped. Or maybe because I wasn’t there since I ran away during the process…”
“Hae-joo…”
“Could it be that His Majesty also doesn’t know we aren’t divorced? Otherwise, how could there be no action for this long? There must be an error…”
As I rambled my thoughts in extreme panic, hyung shook his head.
“Hae-joo. No. That’s not it.”
Unable to watch any longer, hyung grabbed my wrist with a grave expression to calm me down.
“Hae-joo. This is something His Majesty did on purpose. Deliberately. Intentionally.”
On purpose, intentionally? Hyung’s firm words pierced my ears. His eyes were telling me to calm down and think carefully about what kind of person Joo Min-hyeok was. I thought about it silently. If it were that man, Joo Min-hyeok… he would do that. He was a man who could just watch someone be beaten for the sake of evidence, even if that person might be beaten to death.
“You know how meticulous his personality is. And I know it well too. I don’t know what his intention was in making this decision yet, but this is certain. The fact that the divorce didn’t happen is entirely His Majesty’s will.”
The thing I had hoped deep down wasn’t true had happened. I wasn’t divorced. And like a complete idiot, I had been totally unaware of it. Not for a day or two, but for several years. How absurd must that have seemed to him? Joo Min-hyeok had made a fool out of me once again. That son of a bitch. That was the kind of person Joo Min-hyeok was. The presence of Joo Min-hyeok, which I had tried so hard to forget, surged back vividly.
“I knew something was strange. It was too weird for someone with his personality to just let you go and stay still. But this is it. This was it. As expected, he’s not the type to stay still without any cards in his hand. Not with that tenacious personality.”
Hyung let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.
“Actually, I was anxious deep down. Why was nothing happening? Why was His Majesty leaving us alone so quietly? Why Father, and also Seo-joo.”
Stopping for a moment, hyung stared quietly at Dad and Seo-joo.
“He is someone who would have already figured out how many people moved with you and who they are. He definitely knew everything. What kind of family you are, even down to how many spoons are in the house. And more specifically, exactly what our relationship is.”
The moment I heard those words, goosebumps broke out over my skin. Hyung’s words pierced my chest like a freezing dagger.